Finland suffer 1st defeat in Ice Hockey WC in tiebreaker

Host Finland suffered their first defeat in the 2022 Ice Hockey World Championship as they lost in their Group B match to arch-rival Sweden in tiebreaker in Tampere Nokia Arena late Wednesday night.

The match result had to settle through shootout as the regular periods were ended with 2-2 draw and no result came even in the extra time.

Emil Bemstrom was the only player to hit the target in the shootout to bring the victory for Sweden resulting end of the unbeaten status of the Lions in the tournament this year.

During the regular time Adam Larsson scored at the 12^th minute of the first period and took lead for Sweden but the Finns leveled the score and took lead in the second period.

Mikko Lehtonen scored the first goal at 24^th minute while Sami Vatanen scored the second goal just after two minutes and took 2-1 lead for Finland.

But Sweden came back to the match after Joel Kellman scored at 47th minute in the third period.

Finnish players failed to score any goal in the five shootouts while Sweden snatched the victory after scoring one goal out of the five shootouts.

Earlier in three previous matches, Finland beat Norway by 5-0, Latvia by 2-1 and USA by 4-1.

Finland will face Great Britain in their fifth match on Friday.